Do You Name Your Teaware?

I’ve seen a few other Steepsterites mention that they have names for their teapots. I thought it would be fun to have a place to proudly share the names we have bestowed upon our teapots or other teaware.

My first teapot (a green curve from forlife) is called Tim. Tim the Teapot. Then there’s my yixing with the floral motif: Daisy. My tiny yixing is Colin. I’m getting a gaiwan this week and I have yet to meet it, but I’m thinking it’s going to be Mike.

Yes, there’s a method to my madness. These are all characters from one of my all-time favorite sitcoms. ;)

No. I personally think that’s silly. I have to have a way to distinguish them though though so I call them my shu yixing, sheng yixing, ingenuiTEA, etc. So I guess you could call “Shu” and “Sheng” names, but I don’t think that’s quite what you’re talking about. I should mention that I absolutely give them the respect they deserve as my personal property, but I don’t store up treasures on earth so I fear that giving them names will give them too much importance in my life.

I name things, my car, my laptops, my computers … none of my teapots have earned unique names yet though since they are all very different (zarafina, teaforte, breville) – when i end up with two similar teapots (2 by breville for example) they’ll get names

I named my dedicated/seasoned yixing tea mugs – Serenity, Tranquility & Harmony (they are posted on flickr steepster group, if you are interested in catching a sight of ’em http://www.flickr.com/photos/47464543@N02/). Supposedly (it is the intent), I am reflecting upon these values as I make the tea & sip from these cups.

I name basically everything. Not because I am THAT attached to them (although I am a huge packrat and am quite fond of STUFF), but mostly because I like thinking up cool names that I would probably never actually inflict on, say, children. My Ipod is named Dagmara, my cello is named Sonja, my laptop is named Filomena, and my teapot is Ivan.
I haven’t named my car though. I guess because I hate driving.

LOVE your names (especially Filomena and Ivan)! I hadn’t really thought as to why I do it beyond that it’s fun. And I’ve named my cars: TARDIS (actually had a custom plate with that), Mr. Darcy, and now I have K9. And (to keep the replies to a minumum) you do indeed need to watch Spaced again. And Black Books. ;)

I named my Filofax (back when I had one) Trevor. And I named the voice of my car’s navigation system, which has an English accent, Nigel. I pulled up next to a woman with the exact same car in the Whole Foods parking lot one day and we got to chatting about our cars and how much we loved them, and we got on the subject of the voice of the navigation system. She said “oh, we call him Nigel.” I thought I was going to wet myself for laughing.

I got a few yixing teapots back in summer 04. I have a few that I hadn’t used lately and left with my family, but I recently wanted to retrieve some for my new greens, oolongs, and puers. This last weekend, I went home to visit them with my girlfriend (who is Chinese), and picked up the only one of those pots I could find. My girfriend gave me a “you can’t be serious” look, and I was just totally confused.

Turns out that emblazoned on the front of that teapot were two characters that sounded just like my ex-girlfriend’s very uncommon name – the ex I met in fall 04. I had no idea because they are not the same characters!

Ok. that is funny, I actually make teapots and for my show at college I had to name all the teapots I made. One was “Ima” like Ima little teapot, one was “Gorby” He had a red “liver spot” on the front in the glaze, those were the two most memorable, and kinda funny. I think maybe I need to start that up again.